Fed's Powell faces political storm, policy minefield over SVB oversight

WASHINGTON: The Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point on Wednesday, a decision that will land amid a brewing political storm over the U.S. central bank's oversight of collapsed Silicon Valley Bank and with the financial world hanging on the words of one man: Jerome Powell.

In the second institutional crisis faced by Powell during his five-year tenure as Fed chief, SVB's March 10 failure has drawn scrutiny across the political spectrum, with calls to reform the central bank's governance and oversight reminiscent of what happened after a furor over Fed officials' stock trading erupted in 2021.